Phys.org news tagged with:specimenshttp://phys.org/
en-usPhys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine.Hard-won lizards: Clues in amber anoles cap long adventure for LososHere's an unusual bit of math: What do you get when you add "Jurassic Park," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and "Ocean's 11," and then factor in a large slice of screwball comedy?http://phys.org/news/2015-07-hard-won-lizards-clues-amber-anoles.html
Evolution Wed, 29 Jul 2015 06:20:01 EDTnews357368558Blitz survey uncovers Mid West mat rushThe recent discovery of the plant species Lomandra marginata (commonly known as mat rush), began with a casual conversation during a Bush Blitz survey.http://phys.org/news/2015-07-blitz-survey-uncovers-mid-west.html
Plants & Animals Mon, 27 Jul 2015 08:30:01 EDTnews357201894Next-generation sampling: Pairing genomics with large-scale herbarium samplingPlants are a ubiquitous and essential part of our lives. Estimates suggest there are hundreds of thousands of plant species known to science. How many species are there, really? How are they related? How many are threatened with extinction? Answering these questions in such an enormous clade of life is an important but daunting task for scientists.http://phys.org/news/2015-06-next-generation-sampling-pairing-genomics-large-scale.html
Plants & Animals Tue, 16 Jun 2015 16:10:52 EDTnews353689843Why we still collect butterfliesWho doesn't love butterflies? While most people won't think twice about destroying a wasp nest on the side of the house, spraying a swarm of ants in the driveway, or zapping pesky flies at an outdoor barbecue, few would intentionally kill a butterfly. Perhaps because of their beautiful colors and intricate patterns, or the grace of their flight, butterflies tend to get a lot more love than other types of insects.http://phys.org/news/2015-06-butterflies.html
Plants & Animals Thu, 11 Jun 2015 08:30:04 EDTnews353228811Fewer students study botany, more plant collections closingThe teeming plant world could become a virtual mystery in the coming decades as college students increasingly shy away from studying botany and universities across the U.S. shutter their long-standing herbaria.http://phys.org/news/2015-05-students-botany.html
Plants & Animals Mon, 25 May 2015 13:20:04 EDTnews351777351Requiem for ancient tongue worm: New species of intruder discoveredResearchers have discovered the 425-million-year-old fossil remains of a new species of parasite, still attached to the host animal it invaded long ago.http://phys.org/news/2015-05-requiem-ancient-tongue-worm.html
Archaeology & Fossils Thu, 21 May 2015 12:00:03 EDTnews351418133Unique fish fossils identifiedA team of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich has identified the first fossil specimens of a major group of killifishes that is widely distributed in freshwater habitats today. The 6-million-year-old material sheds new light on the evolution of the bony fishes.http://phys.org/news/2015-04-unique-fish-fossils.html
Archaeology & Fossils Thu, 30 Apr 2015 10:30:02 EDTnews349606831A new beginning for baby mosasaursThey weren't in the delivery room, but researchers at Yale University and the University of Toronto have discovered a new birth story for a gigantic marine lizard that once roamed the oceans.http://phys.org/news/2015-04-baby-mosasaurs.html
Archaeology & Fossils Fri, 10 Apr 2015 11:53:52 EDTnews347885615Rich diversity of present-day beetles may be due to extinction resistanceToday's rich variety of beetles may be due to an historically low extinction rate rather than a high rate of new species emerging, according to a new study. These findings were revealed by combing through the fossil record.http://phys.org/news/2015-03-rich-diversity-present-day-beetles-due.html
Evolution Wed, 18 Mar 2015 05:26:37 EDTnews345875186Deadly frog fungus dates back to 1880s, studies findA deadly fungus responsible for the extinction of more than 200 amphibian species worldwide has coexisted harmlessly with animals in Illinois and Korea for more than a century, a pair of studies have found.http://phys.org/news/2015-03-deadly-frog-fungus-dates-1880s.html
Plants & Animals Wed, 04 Mar 2015 14:00:04 EDTnews344697072Humans altering Adriatic ecosystems more than nature, study showsThe ecosystems of the Adriatic Sea have weathered natural climate shifts for 125,000 years, but humans could be rapidly altering this historically stable biodiversity hot spot, a University of Florida study says.http://phys.org/news/2015-02-humans-adriatic-ecosystems-nature.html
Environment Mon, 16 Feb 2015 07:40:03 EDTnews343293838When scientists play with LEGO: A new creative version of pinned insect manipulatorScientists from the Natural History Museum London are facing the challenges of mass digitization of museum specimens by inventing a creative, functional and most importantly quite cheap way to capture old and fragile specimens.http://phys.org/news/2015-02-scientists-lego-creative-version-pinned.html
Plants & Animals Thu, 05 Feb 2015 12:35:33 EDTnews342362112About 100 brains missing from University of TexasThe University of Texas at Austin is missing about 100 brains - about half of the specimens the university had in a collection of brains preserved in jars of formaldehyde.http://phys.org/news/2014-12-brains-university-texas.html
Other Wed, 03 Dec 2014 06:03:14 EDTnews336808984Scanning robot helps put insect collection onlineA robot capable of scanning a tray of insect specimens in a few minutes will help make the virtual images and tagging information available to the public online, according to South Dakota State University entomologist Paul Johnson, director of the Severin-McDaniel Insect Research Collection. Information is being posted on the project website, invertnet.org, as well as national and international websites.http://phys.org/news/2014-11-scanning-robot-insect-online.html
Plants & Animals Mon, 24 Nov 2014 08:30:01 EDTnews336039086Exquisite ancient horse fossil preserves uterus with unborn foalA specimen of the ancient horse Eurohippus messelensis has been discovered in Germany that preserves a fetus as well as parts of the uterus and associated tissues. It demonstrates that reproduction in early horses was very similar to that of modern horses, despite great differences in size and structure. Eurohippus messelensis had four toes on each forefoot and three toes on each the hind foot, and it was about the size of a modern fox terrier. The new find was unveiled at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Berlin.http://phys.org/news/2014-11-exquisite-ancient-horse-fossil-uterus.html
Archaeology & Fossils Thu, 06 Nov 2014 09:19:42 EDTnews334487969New dinosaur species unearthed in Venezuela(Phys.org) —A team of paleontologists with members from Brazil, Venezuela, the U.S. and Germany has found fossil evidence of a previously unknown dinosaur in Venezuela. In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the team describes how they found the fossils and where they fit into the historical record.http://phys.org/news/2014-10-dinosaur-species-unearthed-venezuela.html
Archaeology & Fossils Wed, 08 Oct 2014 08:30:01 EDTnews331971882Livingstone beetle specimens found after 150 yearsDr David Livingstone's only known beetle specimens have been discovered at the Museum - 150 years after he brought them back from Africa.http://phys.org/news/2014-09-livingstone-beetle-specimens-years.html
Plants & Animals Mon, 22 Sep 2014 08:10:03 EDTnews330589369Australian mosquito appears in CaliforniaOfficials say an Australian mosquito has made what is believed to be its first U.S. appearance in the Los Angeles area.http://phys.org/news/2014-09-australian-mosquito-california.html
Ecology Tue, 16 Sep 2014 15:12:54 EDTnews330099168Researchers find evidence of earliest instance of parental care in scavenger beetle(Phys.org) —A team of researchers with members from the U.S., Germany and China has found evidence of parental care in a scavenger beetle fossil dated back to 125 million years ago, making it the earliest example of its kind. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers describe their work in studying various beetle fossil specimens found in several parts of China and what they uncovered in doing so.http://phys.org/news/2014-09-evidence-earliest-instance-parental-scavenger.html
Evolution Tue, 16 Sep 2014 10:10:02 EDTnews330079368Scientists reveal the complex early evolution of the bird's 'breastbone'It has always been difficult to understand how birds evolved from dinosaurs because of the strange combination of features observed in taxa inferred to be situated near this great evolutionary transition. For example, the sternum, also called the 'breastbone', is a large bone to which the lower ends of the bird's ribs are attached. It is intrinsic to modern avian flight, providing the attachment surface for the two largest muscles in the body, the primary fight muscles the pectoralis and supracoracoideus. This bone is present in many dinosaurs inferred to be closely related to birds (e.g. Microraptor, Epidexipteryx) and most basal birds (e.g. Confuciusornis, enantiornithines) but strangely is absent in troodontid dinosaurs and the early birds Archaeopteryx and Sapeornis.http://phys.org/news/2014-09-scientists-reveal-complex-early-evolution.html
Archaeology & Fossils Mon, 15 Sep 2014 08:40:01 EDTnews32998726550 million year old mite attached to ant head found in piece of amber(Phys.org) —A small team of researchers with members from several countries has identified the oldest known instance of a type of mite fossil. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, the team describes how they obtained a piece of amber with an ant embedded inside of it along with a mite that was attached to the ant's head, and what their work revealed.http://phys.org/news/2014-09-million-year-mite-ant-piece.html
Archaeology & Fossils Wed, 10 Sep 2014 08:10:01 EDTnews329551294Botanical garden readies for rare, spectacular puya raimondii floweringIf you're on the lookout for a special experience, the UC Botanical Garden has just the ticket. Its endangered Puya raimondii, a flowering plant not-so-modestly known as the Queen of the Andes, is in the process of producing a giant bloom that could shoot 30 feet high and feature up to 30,000 flowers. Its dramatic life cycle change happens in the wild only every 80 to 100 years.http://phys.org/news/2014-06-botanical-garden-readies-rare-spectacular.html
Plants & Animals Wed, 04 Jun 2014 06:30:01 EDTnews321080512Experiment enters next stage at new Idaho hot cellTo the average eye, the experimental specimens don't look like much: silver-colored squares about the size of a domino. But the samples represent several big milestones for Idaho National Laboratory, the Department of Energy and the U.S. nuclear energy industry.http://phys.org/news/2014-06-stage-idaho-hot-cell.html
Energy & Green Tech Mon, 02 Jun 2014 08:30:02 EDTnews320915502Collecting biological specimens essential to science and conservationCollecting plant and animal specimens is essential for scientific studies and conservation and does not, as some critics of the practice have suggested, play a significant role in species extinctions.http://phys.org/news/2014-05-biological-specimens-essential-science.html
Plants & Animals Thu, 22 May 2014 14:09:58 EDTnews319986585The early earthworm catches on to full data releaseTo quote the American cartoonist Gary Larson: all things play a role in nature, even the lowly worm—but perhaps never in such a visually stunning way as that presented in two papers published today in the open access journals GigaScience and PLOS ONE. The work and data presented here provide the first-ever comparative study of earthworm morphology and anatomy using a 3D non-invasive imaging technique called micro-computed tomography (or microCT), which digitizes worm structures. This opens the possibility of scanning millions of specimens from museum collections, including extinct species, all of which is important given that the earthworm is both a benefit and a bane to ecosystems.http://phys.org/news/2014-05-early-earthworm-full.html
Plants & Animals Fri, 16 May 2014 17:00:02 EDTnews319466683Paleontologists unveil online showcase of 3-D fossil remainsMore than two decades ago, University of Michigan paleontologist Daniel Fisher and some of his students began the laborious task of digitally scanning the bones of mastodons, mammoths and other prehistoric creatures so the images could be displayed on computers.http://phys.org/news/2014-05-paleontologists-unveil-online-showcase-d.html
Archaeology & Fossils Mon, 05 May 2014 15:21:31 EDTnews318522076Research splits alligator snapping turtle, 'dinosaur of the turtle world,' into three speciesThe alligator snapping turtle is the largest river turtle in North America, weighing in at up to 200 pounds and living almost a century. Now researchers from Florida and the University of Vermont have discovered that it is not one species—but three.http://phys.org/news/2014-04-alligator-snapping-turtle-dinosaur-world.html
Plants & Animals Thu, 24 Apr 2014 09:39:46 EDTnews317551171Salamanders shrinking as their mountain havens heat upWild salamanders living in some of North America's best salamander habitat are getting smaller as their surroundings get warmer and drier, forcing them to burn more energy in a changing climate.http://phys.org/news/2014-03-salamanders-mountain-havens.html
Plants & Animals Tue, 25 Mar 2014 15:55:41 EDTnews314981726Nanoscale freezing leads to better imagingIt's an odd twist. For scientists to determine if a cell is functioning properly, they must destroy it.http://phys.org/news/2014-02-nanoscale-imaging.html
General Physics Tue, 25 Feb 2014 09:40:03 EDTnews312541499Ancient reptile birth preserved in fossilIchthyosaur fossil may show the earliest live birth from an ancient Mesozoic marine reptile, according to a study published February 12, 2014 in PLOS ONE by Ryosuke Motani from the University of California, Davis, and colleagues.http://phys.org/news/2014-02-ancient-reptile-birth-fossil.html
Archaeology & Fossils Wed, 12 Feb 2014 17:00:06 EDTnews311445506